1. Reprocessing is the separation of spent nuclear fuel into its constituent parts, mainly plutonium and/or uranium and lighter elements that are the product of nuclear fission in reactors. Return to Document.

2. Until recently, Hanford N-reactor spent nuclear fuel, which accounts for over 75% of the DOE spent fuel inventory, was being considered for electrometallurgical processing. Return to Document.

3. Westinghouse Savannah River Company, Technical Data Summary Supporting the Spent Nuclear Fuel Environmental Impact Statement. Revision 2, Westinghouse Savahnnah River Company. March 1994, p. 8. Return to Document.

4. Department of Energy, Final Environmental Impact Statement -- Interim Management of Nuclear Materials. DOE Savannah River Site, October 1995, pp. 2-55 to 2-58. Return to Document.

5. Department of Energy, Programmatic Spent Nuclear Fuel Management and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Programs Final Environmental Impact Statement. DOE Office of Environmental Management and DOE Idaho Operations Office, April 1995, Volume 1, Appendix C, pp. 5-41 to 5-43. Return to Document.

6. Sandia National Laboratories, Performance Assessment of the Direct Disposal in Unsaturated Tuff of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Waste Owned by the U.S. Department of Energy. Volume 1: Executive Summary. SAND94-2563/1. Sandia National Laboratories, 1995, p. ES-37. Return to Document.

7. Conway, John T. (Chairman, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board) Letter to Secretary of Energy Hazel R. O'Leary. Defense Nuclear Facilties Safety Board. November 15, 1995. Return to Document.

8. Statement by the President and Fact Sheet on Nonproliferation Initiative. White House Office of the Press Secretary, July 13, 1992. Return to Document.

9. Department of Energy, DOE-Owned Spent Nuclear Fuel Strategic Plan. DOE December, 1994, p. 14. Return to Document.

10.National Academy of Sciences, An Assessment of Continued R&D into an Electrometallurgical Approach for Treating DOE Spent Nuclear Fuel. NAS 1995, pp. 27-28. Return to Document.

11. Letter to Senator Frank Murkowski, June 29, 1995. Return to Document.

12. Reprocessing is the separation of spent nuclear fuel into its constituent parts, mainly plutonium and/or uranium and lighter elements that are the product of nuclear fission in reactors. Return to Document.

13. Over 103 metric tons of plutonium was produced in reactors. However, 7.4 metric tons remains in irradiated spent fuel and has not been extracted. Return to Document.

14. A metric ton is 1,000 kilograms. Throughout this report, the term "metric ton" of spent fuel is used as a short-hand for a more technical measurement called metric ton of heavy metal (MTHM), which is DOE's traditional measurement of spent fuel mass. MTHM refers only to the mass of plutonium, uranium, and thorium in the spent fuel. The actual mass of spent fuel is always larger than the mass of its heavy metals. Return to Document.

15. Uranium enrichment refers to the percentage of the fissile uranium isotope U-235 in the fuel. Natural uranium contains roughly 0.7% U-235 and 99.3% U-238. The ratio of U-235 to U-238 can be increased in a uranium enrichment plant. Most commercial nuclear power reactors use uranium enriched to 3%-4% uranium-235. The fuel for most naval and some research reactors contains weapons-usable highly enriched uranium (HEU) enriched to 90% or more in U-235. Return to Document.

16. Cladding material refers to the type of material out of which the tube that contains the fuel pellets is made. Cladding materials include aluminum, zirconium, stainless steel, and others. Return to Document.

17. DOE 1994d, p. 31. Fuel type refers to the chemical form of the fuel pellets. Types include uranium oxide, uranium carbide, mixed uranium plutonium oxide (MOX), uranium zirconium hydride, and uranium metal. Return to Document.

18. The reports were released in February, April, and October 1994. Return to Document.

19. Costner, Brain and Brailsford, Beatrice, "Managing Spent Fuel Without Building Bombs." Proceedings of the Waste Management 1995 Conference, Tucson Arizona, February 26 - March 2, 1995. Return to Document.

20. Reprocessing plants are sometimes called canyons because they are long, narrow structures. Return to Document.

21. Department of Energy, Facility Utilization Strategy for the Savannah River Site Chemical Separation Facilities. DOE, December, 1995. Return to Document.

22. The Foreign Research Reactor EIS considers reprocessing 18.2 out of a total of 19.2 metric tons of foreign research reactor fuel and states that the total contains 4,600 kilograms of HEU. Mark-16 and -22 fuels, which are highly enriched, contain several hundred kilograms of uranium. Return to Document.

23. 400 kilograms is a rough estimate. It is based on DOE figures that show 300 kilograms of plutonium in irradiated materials at the Savannah River Site (Grumbly 1994). Most of these materials are planned to be reprocessed. In addition, Argonne National Laboratory has said that 200 kilograms of plutonium are contained in the EBR-II spent fuel planned to be electrometallurgically processed (McFarlane and Lineberry, p. 3). About 4,000 kilograms of plutonium would be extracted if Hanford N-reactor fuel were reprocessed (Grumbly 1994). Return to Document.

24. Civilian reprocessing refers to reprocessing spent fuel from commercial nuclear power reactors. The plutonium and uranium extracted through civilian reprocessing is normally fabricated into new fuel for nuclear reactors. Return to Document.

Institute for Energy and Environmental Research

Comments to Outreach Coordinator, Pat Ortmeyer: ieer@ieer.org
Takoma Park, Maryland, USA

Revised March 21, 1996